Porsche Penske Motosport’s Kevin Estre set a lap right at the end of Hyperpole qualifying Thursday (June 13) at 148.955 mph win the pole for Saturday’s FIA World Endurance Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is the first pole for the Penske-run team on the 8.467-mile road course.
Estre won the pole by .148 seconds over Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Lynn. Lynn’s teammate Sebastien Bourdais was third, then Ferrari AF Corse teammates Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco.
Of note, Lynn’s No. 2 will not start second. It will start seventh due to a five-spot grid penalty given to the car after Earl Bamber‘s crash at Spa.
As a result, Bourdais’ No. 3 will start second, then the two Ferraris. Signatech Alpine’s Paul-Loup Chatin would assume fifth.
Qualifying was delayed due to a crash during the first Michelin Le Mans Cup race of the weekend that required significant barrier repairs. As a result, teams started the 30-minute Hyperpole session just after 8:30 p.m. local time, roughly 32 minutes behind schedule.
Bourdais put his Cadillac on the provisional pole with a lap at 148.822 mph halfway through the session. It looked good to hold on for the pole.
However, the session was red-flagged with just under eight minutes to go when Dries Vanthoor slid off into the gravel at Indianapolis and hit the tires. Much like Kamui Kobayashi on Wednesday, Vanthoor was stripped of his times and will start eighth on Saturday.
When the session resumed, Bourdais chose not to go back out. He had more than three-quarters of a second over Fuoco at the time and felt safe.
Fuoco left himself enough time to put down a fast lap. However, he got loose entering the Dunlop chicane just past the pits. That led him to violate track limits, ending any chance at pole.
However, Lynn was able to take the pole away from his teammate. It looked like a Cadillac 1-2 for a short bit before Estre took the pole for good.
In LMP2, AO by TF’s Louis Deletraz was on top for the majority of the session. However, on his last lap of the session, IDEC Sport’s Job van Uitert took it away. Deletraz was behind van Uitert at the time and took it back for good with a lap at 142.959 mph to win the class pole.
Deletraz’s lap was .610 seconds faster than van Uitert. Panis Racing’s Mathias Beche was third, then United Autosports teammates Ben Hanley and Oliver Jarvis.
In LMGT3, Inception Racing’s Brendan Iribe was able to put himself on top early on. He tried to improve his time, but spun exiting the Ford Chicane.
Despite the spin, Iribe had already done enough as no one could improve after the red flag. The Inception Racing McLaren will start on pole.
Iribe won the pole by .808 seconds over the Porsche of Manthey PureRxcing’s Alex Malykhin. JMW Motorsport’s Giacomo Petrobelli was third in his Ferrari, then the Ford of Ryan Hardwick. The Heart of Racing’s Ian James was fifth.
Hertz Team JOTA was unable to get their No. 12 backup car built up in time to compete in the session. Callum Ilott crashed their primary car at the end of Free Practice No. 2 Wednesday night.
The team will be able to start sixth on Saturday ahead of the two penalized teams. Remember that getting stripped of your times for causing a red flag is worse than not competing in the session at all.
FIA World Endurance Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans Hyperpole Results
Teams have one more Free Practice session that was scheduled to begin at 3:45 p.m. ET today, but has been pushed back. That will stream live on Max’s B/R Sports Add-on.
For the 24 Hours of Le Mans itself, the race will air live, flag-to-flag on Motor Trend starting at 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday. The whole race will be simulcast on Max’s B/R Sports Add-on.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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